7 Days is a weekly round-up of the Editors' picks of what's been happening in the world of technology - written with a dash of humor, a hint of exasperation, and an endless supply of (Irish) coffee.

After last week’s madness and mayhem of CES 2016, you might have expected things to be much quieter this week. But it’s been another week packed full of news from across the tech world, and of course, 7 Days is here again to help you make sense of it all.

We begin this week with a report which claimed that the Apple Music subscription streaming service now has 10 million paying subscribers which, if accurate, would mark an increase of 3.5 million since October.

However, Apple announced on Friday that iTunes Radio – its free, ad-supported music streaming offering – will no longer be free from later this month. From January 28, iTunes Radio will require an Apple Music subscription, leaving Beats 1 as the company’s only free radio station for non-subscribers.

Apple rolled out its first general release of iOS 9 back in September, and within just three days, it had reached 50% of its mobile devices. This week, Apple revealed that that figure has now climbed to a remarkable 75% in just four months.

iOS 9.3 is coming soon, and will introduce a range of new features, including more 3D Touch support for first-party apps; the ability to protect notes with passwords or Touch ID; a new 'Night Shift' mode that adjusts screen coloration depending on the time of day; and more.

Microsoft is continuing with its efforts to entice iOS developers to bring their apps to Windows, as part of a project known as ‘Islandwood’. Details emerged this week of a new compatibility tool to help developers to bridge the gap between iOS and Windows 10, when porting their apps across.

While Microsoft hopes devs will bring their software from rival platforms to Windows, the company is continuing to make its own software more widely available on its competitors’ app stores too – but the latest example is unlikely to go down well with fans of its Windows handsets.

There are advantages to this – for example, making the keyboard available on more devices will provide far more telemetry and feedback to help Microsoft to improve it for all of its users. The obvious downside to this, however, is that it robs Windows phones of one more unique feature. Most recently, the company launched its Cortana digital assistant on iOS, Android and Cyanogen OS.

Office is another example of Microsoft software that has made its way to other platforms in recent years. When Apple unveiled its iPad Pro last year, Microsoft actually made an appearance on stage at the launch event, talking up the device’s productivity credentials when combined with its Office suite.

Unsurprisingly, though, Microsoft clearly believes its Surface Pro tablets – which share obvious similarities with the iPad Pro – are superior. Earlier this week, Microsoft said that “the iPad Pro is always going to be a companion device”, compared with its newest Surface Pro 4, which it described as “a full PC… running full apps”.

The older Surface Pro 3 has remained on sale since the Pro 4 was announced in October, as Microsoft has been working to clear out remaining stocks of the last-gen device. Following deep discounts in recent weeks, those efforts are now paying off – the Surface Pro 3 has finally sold out on the Microsoft Store in the UK, and its US Store is almost out of stock too.

Back in the UK, the Lumia 950 – the smaller of Microsoft’s new Windows 10 Mobile flagships – was originally listed at £499.99 SIM-free after its announcement in October, but following a series of price cuts since then, it’s now available for only £399.99.

That subscription will come in handy for anyone planning to use Office in Continuum mode on either device – as Neowin was first to report last month, that functionality is only available free of charge until March 31, 2016; after that, Microsoft says you’ll need an Office 365 subscription to be able to create and edit documents on Windows 10 Mobile in Continuum mode.

Continuum effectively allows users to turn their high-end handsets into mini-PCs, by connecting them to a larger monitor or TV, and interacting with them via a mouse and keyboard, complete with a PC-style user interface and Start menu. Users can then run apps installed on their phones – but only the newest apps, built on the Universal Windows Platform, are supported in Continuum mode.

Recommended reading

By the way, if you’re pondering how Microsoft might realize the exciting potential of Continuum even further – perhaps, one day, even allowing smartphones to replace PCs entirely – you may be interested in an article I wrote on the subject a few months back (before the first Continuum-enabled devices had been released): Windows 10 Mobile – How Microsoft’s new OS hints at a truly mobile-first future.

Windows 10 Mobile isn’t just intended for smartphones; in recent weeks, we’ve also seen several tablets unveiled running the new OS. The latest example is the PiPO U8T, a 7.85-inch device – and significantly, it uses a Rockchip SoC, rather than one of the more familiar Qualcomm Snapdragons.

Microsoft had originally planned to begin upgrading existing handsets to Windows 10 Mobile in December, but it later delayed the rollout until early 2016. It still hasn’t shared any further details regarding the upgrade, but several recent carrier announcements and user reports indicate that its release is imminent, if not already underway:

Some interesting details were spotted in newly-published Microsoft documentation this week, including a reference to ‘Windows 10 Mobile x86’, potentially hinting at the OS version that will run on the rumored ‘Surface Phone’ that is expected to launch later this year. The documentation also referred to a version of Windows 10 with full desktop support running on devices with ARM processors.

Independent industry analysts IDC revealed this week that 2015 was a pretty bad year for the Windows PC market, with the worst full-year decline on record. The launch of Windows 10 didn’t help much; in the last quarter of 2015 – including the all-important holiday season – PC sales dropped by more than 10 percent year-on-year.

It follows Microsoft’s recent claims that it has seen “significantly higher customer satisfaction with Windows 10 than any other prior version” of the OS. Indeed, the company went even further, stating its “customers are loving Windows 10”.

Microsoft is also helping enterprise customers with their transition to Windows 10 by supporting older versions of the OS on a (very) limited range of brand new PCs with the latest-generation Intel Skylake processors. Microsoft ruled out wider support for Windows 7 and 8.1 on more of the newest devices, though, highlighting the significant benefits of running the new OS on the latest hardware.

However, on Tuesday, Microsoft officially ended its support for Windows 8, and will no longer deliver updates to the unloved operating system, which was replaced by the far superior Windows 8.1. Microsoft is encouraging the 3% of users still running Windows 8 to upgrade to 8.1 or 10 without delay.

After promising last month to open-source “key components” of the Chakra JavaScript engine used in its newest-generation Edge browser on Windows 10, Microsoft made good on that commitment this week, publishing the relevant ‘ChakraCore’ source code on GitHub.

The phenomenally popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, celebrated its 15th birthday on Friday. Founder Jimmy Wales signalled plans to invest significantly in its mobile efforts, to ensure that the site is equipped to handle the “billions more people coming online for the first time” in the years ahead.

Popular UK theme park Alton Towers announced a new virtual reality rollercoaster experience coming later this year. ‘Galactica’ is a relaunch of the now-closed ‘Air’ rollercoaster, but passengers will wear VR headsets on the new ride, travelling at speeds of up to 47mph (75kph), taking them on a virtual journey through space.

Microsoft says that background music playback – the ability to listen to music in an app while playing a game full-screen – won’t be coming to the Xbox One until later this year, despite it being the most-requested feature among owners of the console by a considerable margin.

Before we wrap things up for another week, I’d just like to highlight a couple of other articles that you may enjoy.

First up is a review of the ‘Ring’ video doorbell, which may be of interest to those of you keen on some ‘smart home’ improvements. At first glance, you might think that something as basic as a doorbell hardly needs to be a connected device – but it offers some intriguing features that certainly make it worth a look.

The week ahead

We're hoping to get some official details on Microsoft's Windows 10 Mobile rollout in the coming days, after it was delayed last month.

With Microsoft's Surface Book already shipping in China and Hong Kong, and soon to roll out in other markets outside of North America, the company is also expected to finally deliver its long-awaited fix for the 'sleep' issue on both that device and the Surface Pro 4, for which it apologized to customers last month. The problem prevents both devices from properly entering 'sleep' mode, resulting in high battery drain even when not in use.

And Microsoft will also open registration for its Build 2016 developer conference on Tuesday - but despite the $2,195 ticket price, it's likely to sell out very quickly, so if you're hoping to attend, be ready to buy your ticket at 9am PT!

Along with the usual mix of official news, juicy rumors, and intriguing insights, it should be another exciting week!